Bruins won, Red Sox lost

The Bruins beat the Sabres 5-2 last night but the Red Sox lost to the Rangers 4-1.

The Bruins are still one point out of third place because the Islanders won last night, maintaining their one point lead over the Bruins.

The Red Sox are still in first place in the ALEast but they are no longer in first place in the American League. They are now half a game behind the Royals.

The Bruins are off tonight and the Red Sox / Rangers first pitch is at 8:05. I only made it to the sixth inning last night but that game started at 8:40. Maybe tonight I'll make it to the ninth inning. I guess we'll see how it goes.

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We had some pretty strong winds today but fortunately, no power outages.

It used to be that if it rained, we lost power. If it snowed, we lost power. If the wind blew stronger than a breeze, we lost power. Then the tornado hit, the microburst hit and the October snowstorm hit. While all those things sucked, they did cause the electric companies to upgrade the infrastructure and we don't have near as many power outages as we used to.

I guess even shitty things like tornadoes can bring about a little good.

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Time for some dinner and then some baseball.

Here are today's links:

• You gotta love their persistence. They keep sending them up and they keep crashing.



• If you have a spare $325,000 and a desire to live in a really weird place look no further.



• How the hell did they do that? I had a hard time just getting the horse back in the barn.



• Don't mess with these guys...



• I call cars like this "speed bumps".



• Only in Florida.

Covid is hurting the spam industry

I've noticed that my spam/phish email has decreased significantly in the last several weeks and, if I'm being honest, I kind of miss it.

My email reader is pretty good at shifting crap email into a spam bucket and every day, I go through that folder enjoying the bullshit that the lowlife in the world send to me. Most of it was boring and banal like those annoying "Liberty Mutual can insure you for free!" or "You need these Anderson Replacement WIndows". But every once in awhile I would find a gem that made me smile.

I always enjoyed the offer from the finance minister of Kenya telling me he needed to shift $930,128,000 out of his country and if I was willing to help, he would give me 10%. I just needed to give him my bank account number. Another one I liked was the "Hot woman in your area are looking for you!" emails that promise me unrequited love. Another great email is the, "Citibank/WellsFargo/TDBank/BankofAmrica has detected unusual activity on my account." emails that say all I have to do is click here, log in and they will fix everything.

The reason I liked those emails is because they usually originate from a non-english speaking country so the grammatical errors are hilarious.

I miss those entertaining emails but I don't miss the stream of calls/messages I get from friends/relatives telling me they "they may have clicked on some link and now something is wrong with their computer".

Having said all that, I'm going to give you my theory as to why I'm seeing a significant decrease in spam: India is currently being overwhelmed by Covid and 90% of all the spam is generated in India.

My theory is that all of the spam factories are shut down right now. Once they gain control of the virus in India, we will see a massive resurgence of spam so we should enjoy the lull while it lasts.

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Hockey is on at 7:00 and baseball is on at 8:40. That means I'll be able to watch two periods of hockey before I flip over to baseball and fall asleep on my couch in the 5th or 6th inning.

While I do that, you can do these:

• You just know that guys are going to spend a huge amount of time pulling up next to a group of women just so they can say, "Any of you lovely ladies care for a ride on my dong?"



• I wonder if Tony gets paid by the word 'boulder'?



• There's going to be another rebellion down there. Let's hope this one is as entertaining as the last one.



• Farmers: Don't mess with them.



• Wait. Are they saying China is building a space station?



• Seems to me that with the advent of remote learning via Zoom, kids are getting more of an education than ever before.

A couple of winners

The Bruins beat the Penguins last night, moving to within one point of third place in the East. It was a good win at the right time. If they can keep winning, they'll overtake the Islanders and move into third just as the regular season is winding down.

They are off tonight so I don't have to flip back-and-forth to watch them.

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The Red Sox beat the Mets last night and for the first time since he became a member of the Red Sox, I saw Richards pitch like the pitcher we were told he was.

The man was picking corners and dropping batters with a slider that seemed to buckle them at the knees.

Tonight is Pivetta up against the master known as deGrom. I hope and pray that deGrom has an off night and Pivetta pitches like he usually does. If Pivetta can keep the Mets bats quiet, the Red Sox stand a chance of maybe pushing deGrom off the mound just based on pitch count. The one thing the Red Sox are good at is driving up the pitch count.

The game starts at 6:40 tonight so I should be able to stay awake to watch all nine innings.

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Here are a few links for you to click on:

• Something tells me that Rudy may end up in the slammer.



• Bummer. He was the most under-appreciated of the three.



• California is filled with weirdos.



• Oh Canada.



• Didn't Alfred Hitchcock make a movie about this?

I picked an interesting day to fly

I got my biannual flight review completed today and man, it was a tough day to fly.

The winds were a bit gusty and "variable". And when I say variable, I mean they were swinging 180°. Also, since the weather is going to suck for the rest of the week, everyone and their brother was up flying today.

We went to Barnes in Westfield for one full stop landing and then back to Northampton where I did a go-around, two touch-&-go's and one full stop landing.

Here's the radar scan of my flight:

Here's a guy that I had to wait for before I could depart Westfield:

So now I'm good for two more years.

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Today is one of those days where I have two sports to watch at the same time. The Bruins vs the Penguins drop puck at 7:00 and the Red Sox vs the Mets first pitch is at 7:10.

While I watch those two gmes, you can visit these few links:

• Australia: What doesn't try to kill ya, grabs ahold of your kayak paddle and probably tries to kill you.



• For the record, I'm pretty sure the Chinese are freakin' nuts.



• Someone probbly isn't going to get promoted to colonel.



• What the hell is "cram school" and why would you send your daughter there?



• Polyamorous Romp would be a fantastic name for a 1980's childrens television show.

I've decided to torture myself

I'm teaching myself C++. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, C++ is a programming language designed to be as difficult as possible. And by difficult, I mean freakin' impossible.

For instance, if I want to have my program print the time, it will print the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970. For the record, that's 1,619,459,243 seconds as of April 26, 2021 @ 6:47pm. If I want the time to show up in some form that a human will understand, I have to run those seconds through a series of canned functions.

I learned some C back in the 80s but I'm old and that was a long time ago. I don't remember any of it and besides, the language I learned was C, not C++. The differences between C and C++ is like the difference between Portuguese and Spanish - close but not the same.

Teaching yourself C++ is like teaching yourself to drive a car. You can do it but you're gonna crash a lot.

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No sports for me to watch tonight. That means I'll be burning through some of those DVRs I've been collecting.

I also might dive into some Mandalorian. I watched the first season last year and the first two episodes of the second season when they came out but then hockey started and then spring training kicked off so The Mandalorian took a back seat.

While I figure out what I'm going to do for my nightly entertainment, you can check these out:

• Only in Florida.



• That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works!



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Year.



• Oh Canada.



• Key phrase in this story: "The defendant’s history of punching people in the face suggests he may punch people in the face again."

They split the series

The Red Sox managed to take a 5-1 lead in the second inning and then hold off the Mariners to win the game 5-3. This splits the series 2-2 and leaves them in first place.

They are on an off-day tomorrow and then they start a 6-game road trip. First up is a 2-game inter-league game against the Mets. Tuesday's game will be a tough game because they face Jacob DeGrom who is probably the best pitcher in the MLB right now.

As for the Bruins, they lost this afternoon 1-0 to the Penguins.

The only highpoint of the Bruins game for me was that it started at 3:00 so it only overlapped the Red Sox by about an hour. That means I only missed the first period while watching the Red Sox.

They don't play again until Tuesday at 7:00, which is when the Red Sox will be playing. That means I get to do the flip-flop thing again.

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Not much else to prattle on about. The news is all "covid this" and "Biden that" which means I'm finding it tiring to read.

Here's what I stumbled upon:

• More proof that our society is filled with idiots.



• Well this sounds awful.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Week.



• You gotta love dogs.

Well that sucked.

Last night, the Red Sox won and the Bruins lost. Today, the Red Sox lost and the Bruins are on a day off.

The Bruins lost to the Sabres 4-6 and it wasn't pretty.

The Sabres owned the Bruins through the first 2 periods and the score was 5-1 at the start of the third period.

The Bruins made a run at it during the third period and with about a minute left in the period, the score was 4-5. That's when Cassidy decided to pull his goalie, giving him six shooters. Unfortunately, as often happens when you leave your net undefended, the Sabres managed to snatch the puck from the Bruins and flick a shot into the net.

The game ended with the Bruins losing 4-6.

As for the Red Sox, they won last nights game despite Barnes giving up a very uncharacteristic 3-run homer in the ninth. They game ended after 9 innings with the Red Sox winning 6-5.

Today's game was the shits. Evoldi had no control over the baseball and the Mariners beat the crap out of him. The Red Sox bats couldn't hit the ball to save their lives and in the end, the score was 8-2 in favor of the Mariners.

This was the third game in their four-game series and they are down 2-1. They need to win tomorrow's game to split the series.

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While I was watching the Red Sox fail, I found these:

• Yes, the guy is a slimeball but you gotta admit, this borders on genius.



• Key phrase in this story: "It’s a lot of cookies!"



• I always thought they were just checking me out.



• Our new national tragedy...



• I actually think this is true for a lot of people.



• Key phrase in this story: "He ran his experiment by putting a non-toxic lipstick on his cats’ anuses."

They lost

I watched 9 innings last night and when I fell asleep, the score was 3-3 going into the 10th.

When I woke up, it was 7-3 in favor of the Mariners.

Pivetta pitched a great game, no-hitting them through 6 innings. The problems came up when the bullpen took over.

I'm going to add this: This is the first time this season the bullpen has faltered. Personally, I think the Red Sox have a pretty damned good bullpen so I'm looking at last nights games as a fluke.

Perez is on the mound tonight and I'm hoping this game goes a little better.

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The Bruins won last night, beating the Sabres 5-1. Since I was flipping back & forth between the Red Sox and the Bruins, I didn't see any of the goals.

They now have a 6 game winning streak and are still in the race for the playoffs.

Tonights game is being played at the same time as the Red Sox so once again, I will be flipping back & forth between the games.

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I'm going to feed the fur-bearin' critters, get some dinner and settle in to watch sports.

Here are a few links that came to my attention:

• I bet the students thought he was the best teacher ever!



• Attention boneheads everywhere: Setting off eighty pounds of any explosive is bad. Doing it as part of one of those idiotic "gender reveal" things is stupid.



• It's the old, "My dog did it!" defense.



• Only in Florida.



• I'm betting that either drugs or alcohol were involved.

Too windy to fly

Today was the day I had scheduled my biannual flight review. Unfortunately, mother nature had different ideas.

I checked the weather at Bradley, Barnes & Westover and found the following:

Bradley in Windsor Locks was predicting winds at 20kt with gusts to 32kt
Barnes in Westfield was predicting winds at 23kt with gusts to 34kt
Westover in Chicopee was predicting winds at 30kt with gusts to 40kt

You may notice the pattern: The closer you get to Northampton, the stronger the wind gets.

The wind is not my friend but the gusts are my enemy. Landing a plane in high winds is easy if you are flying into a steady wind. Landing a plane in high winds that suddenly get stronger, weaker, stronger, weaker, etc... is an accident waiting to happen. I don't want any accidents.

I texted my instructor and said that today looked pretty bad. He agreed and we decided that next Tuesday would be a hell of a lot better.

According to the weather prediction dweebs, next Tuesday is supposed to have temps in the 70's, some fair-weather high clouds and winds be around 8 or 9 knots.

That sounds a lot better to me.

⧫

The only argument I can find against this is that the federal government will favor the state of Washington D.C. more than the other 50 states. Sorta like how Boston gets everything and the rest of us out here in Western Massachusetts get shit.

Personally, I can't see any reason at all why it should not be a state. Hell, if Wyoming (population 580,000) can be a state, Washington D.C. (population 690,000) can be a state.

I also think Puerto Rico should be a state but that might just be another reason why I should never be in charge.

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The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays last night.

They are still in first place in the AL, tied with the Oakland "Holy shit! Where did they come from?" Athletics.

Tonight's game starts a four-game series against the Mariners who are only ½ a game behind the Red Sox and the Athletics.

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It's good to be a sports fan because there is both hockey and baseball on tap for tonight.

While I flip back and forth between those two games, you can visit these interesting tidbits of crap:

• Tony Soprano would have been proud...



• How about a story that doesn't make cops look bad.



• Here's a piece of financial advice for you: Sell your equities before this guy takes 40% of your retirement account growth.



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of our society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen.



• Caution: Letting people puke on you increases your risk of getting covid.



• Oh Canada.

That was a fun little storm.

For a brief moment, I was wondering if I might need to get my generator out and ready to go...

We got a little hail and the wind was ramping up pretty well. NOAA indicated we might have gusts that hit 60 mph.

Fortunately, we didn't lose power or internet. The only thing I'm concerned about right now is if these thunderstorms will have any effect the start of tonight's baseball game. They are rolling across the state at 45 mph which means they should hit boston around 6:00. The game starts at 7:10 so hopefully the storms will be gone by then.
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Speaking of baseball, the Red Sox managed to beat the Blue Jays 4-2 last night and I managed to stay awake to watch the whole game.

They are still in first place in the American League so no change there but the Yankees are no longer in last place in the AL. That position currently belongs to the Tigers.

I have a feeling it's going to be an interesting and dynamic baseball season.

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So let's talk about the conviction of Derek Chauvin and probably piss off some of my elatives and friends. I have been staying out of this entire sordid affair because, well, simply put, there have been enough loud-mouthed assholes spouting their opinions.

But now that it's over with, I feel compelled to say that in this country, uttering (passing bad checks) or counterfeiting (passing fake money) is not a capital crime. We do not execute criminals for either one of those crimes. Floyd should never have been killed because he passed a fake $20.

In my humble non-educated opinion, Chauvin murdered that man. Placing you full body weight on someone's neck will cut off the flow of blood to the brain and air to the lungs. I know it, you know it and Chauvin knows it. What he did was intentional and he should be punished like anyone else that does something like that.

As for the other three cops that were on-scene and seemed to be more concerned about the crowd of five people than they were about the guy strangling and murdering Floyd, they should at least be terminated for negligence of their sworn duty to uphold the laws of the state and nation.

This entire thing was shitty from the start and no one behaved like decent human beings. Not a one of those guys bothered to say, "Uh, Derek, I think your killing him. Maybe you should get off his neck."

And that is all I have to say about that.

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It's time for me to put on NESN and see if the game is still a go for 7:00.

You should consider checking these out:

• Apparently the Italians take their ice cream very seriously.



• Only in Florida.



• Rat-sized prawns actually sounds tasty. 



• Remember when Jesus said to his church, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." I guess his church forgot...



• So much for social distancing.

Busy day = short post

After work I mowed my lawn and then my wife & I spread a shitload of mulch in her gardens.

My back hurts and I didn't spend any time surfing for links or news.

I did manage to dig up these few links while waiting for the Red Sox game to start:

• I bet he thought it was funny right up until he heard the click of the handcuffs.



• Key line in this story: "Deputies said when they searched her car, they found marijuana, crack cocaine and a knife."



• Maybe the snake liked baked beans.



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of our society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen.

They split the series

Evoldi pitched a great game and Red Sox came out swinging the bats.

At one point in the 7th inning, the White Sox ended up using position players as pitchers. The first one was their designated hitter, Mercedes, who threw a pretty good pitch. He was lighting the gun up at 85mph and hitting the corners every once in a while. In the 8th, they sent in their second baseman, Mendick, who threw a blistering 60mph. Now 60 sounds like little league speeds but he managed to strike out Cordero because no one in the majors can hit a baseball that is going 60mph.

The game ended with the Red Sox beating the White Sox 11-4

Tomorrow starts a two game series against the Blue Jays.

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NASA managed to fly an aircraft on the planet Mars this morning and I was able to watch it live over the internet on my laptop while I was sitting on my couch. And the image was crystal clear.

That, to me, is pretty amazing.

I'm not a futurist so I don't have good prediction skills but being able to fly on Mars means that when people finally make the trip there, they might not have to crawl around on slow vehicles. They may be able to flit from location to location with almost no effort.

That might not generate any special discoveries but it will certainly have a high coolness factor.

And for the record, the FAA has designated the takeoff and landing area on Mars as a recognized airfield and given it the designation IGY, for Ingenuity. This means that technically, it's possible for me to file an instrument flight plan between Bradley Airport (KBDL) and Mars (KIGY).

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There is no hockey and I have no curling DVRs. This means I'll have to entertain myself by watching some of my other DVRs.

Here are a few links that you might enjoy:

• Chalk one up for the elephants.



• Only in New Jersey.



• Listen up people: Unless it's yours, don't clean the gravestone.



• If you plan on visiting South Carolina in the near future, stay the hell out of the ocean.



• No...

The Bruins continue

They beat the division-leading Capitals this afternoon 6-3, giving them a four game winning streak. They are now only 2 points behind the Islanders for the number three spot in the division.

They are off tomorrow and will pick the sticks up again on Tuesday when they take on the Sabres.

⧫
The Red Sox are playing a double-header against the White Sox today and they lost the first game 3-2. Houck pitched pretty damned well and it was good to see him back on the mound.

The second game will kick off at 5:10 with Perez on the mound.

⧫
My day has been filled with sports.

The hockey game started at 12:30.

At 1:15, I turned the picture-in-a-picture thing on so I could watch both baseball and hockey.

When hockey ended around 3:00, I was left with baseball.

When baseball ended around 3:45, I immediately fired up my DVR and put on the World Mens Curling Championship match between Scotland and Sweden.

At 5:10, I'll stop the curling match and switch back to NESN to watch game two of the double header.

Their four-game series is currently tied 1-1. I'm hoping that by 7:30 tonight, the Red Sox are up 2-1 over the White Sox.

Oh, and before I forget, here are the current standings in the American League:

It must suck to be a Yankees fan right now...

⧫
Like I said, I'm gonna watch some baseball.

You can click links if you want:

• Key phrase in this story: "...they used 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames."
  For the record, the standard 20x40 foot in ground swimming pool hoods 30,000 gallons...



• The covid lockdown has caused the British to go a little crazy.



• I am incredibly comfortable saying "I never want to be that old."



• Add this to the list of ways I don't want to die.



• Today is the anniversary of the Doolittle Raid. Or as I like to call it, "The day a bunch of guys with the biggest balls in history flew overloaded bombers off a boat in the middle of the freakin' ocean."



• I have a feeling that alcohol was involved.

The Bruins are on a roll

They beat the Islanders 3-0 last night and it was fun to watch. They played hard and the kid Swayman in goal was a wall. He stopped every shot that was on net and he did it well.

Rask is 34 years old and Halak is 35 years old. Both of those guys are getting along in the years and hsving a 22 year old backup that plays as well as the primary is a good thing for the team.

I'm not saying Rask and Halak are done but I do know that Rask seems to be experiencing more injuries and is taking longer to recover from them.

Don't get me wrong, Rask is still a premier goalie in the NHL and Halak is one of the best backup's around. The problem right now is that Halak is out with the 'rona. That means Swayman is the second goalie and his abilities are making a lot of people think maybe he should be the backup to Rask.

If I were Halak, I would start thinking about what my second career was going to be.

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The Red Sox are scheduled to start at 4:05 this afternoon and it looks like the game will start on time. That's why I'm posting this early so I can give the game my complete attention.

While I enjoy the baseball game, you can enjoy these:

• Of course it should be legal. The only reason it's illegal is because back in the early 1900's, some prissy busybodies got their burlap underwear in a twist and decided it was their god-given duty to make sure no one ever had a good time.



• Oh Canada.



• Only in Florida.



• Apparently the government of Kyrgyzstan has decided that the cure for covid is to just kill off everybody.



• Japan: Where this kind of thing is probably considered normal.



• Send it to Massachusetts.
  I know at least 10 people who are waiting.

As predicted, there is no baseball today

At 7:30 this morning, I sent my sister this picture:

They live in North Carolina and I like to remind her what it's like in Massachusetts in April.

Her reply was to send me this picture:

Now you know how my day started.

For the record, we got about 5 or 6 inches of some very heavy snow. Fortunately it's a bit too early in the season for our trees to be covered with leaves so we did not get to enjoy any power outages.

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As the title says, the game between the White Sox and the Red Sox has been postponed. They will play a double header on Sunday and I'm okay with that.

I suspect that tomorrow's game will not be impacted by weather since it's scheduled to be played at 4:05pm. According to the weather dweebs, any lingering showers should be gone by then.

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In the world of hockey, the Bruins had a great game last night, defeating the Islanders 4-1. I really like the new guy, Hall. He is looking like a great addition.

They play again tonight and I just need to figure out if they'll be on NESN or NESN+.

⧫
I'm gonna watch some hockey. You can enjoy these:

• If you run a business or a school or are generally responsible for overseeing any collection of people and you tell those people they cannot carry their cell phones, you are an arrogant prick and you should be held liable for wielding your power over people in a negligent manner.



• If you live in Schodack, NY, you should keep your windows closed for a few days.



• Key phrase in this story: "As part of the agreement, the Justice Department has offered to sponsor Schaffer for the witness protection program."



• Yet another reason why I ain't ever going to India.



• Key phrase in this story: "No noises, no smell, no nothing. Just a regular, good refrigerator. I would think it was a great refrigerator.



• It appears that Tesla's are crime-fighting tools.

Not a bad series.

The Red Sox took 3 out of 4 games from the Twins and they are currently on their way home to Boston.

They are 9-4, giving them pretty good lead in the American League standings.

I'm still on the edge about Richards. He started today and I thought he struggled a bit, giving up a couple of runs and a few walks. I'm not entirely sure hif e's going to be a help or a hindrance for the pitching rotation.

As for hitting, the Red Sox only had one hit and one walk through seven innings. It wasn't until the top of the eighth inning that the bats came alive and they tied the game 3-3.

The ninth inning was a bust for the Red Sox but not for the Twins. The first batter hit a single, the second batter was hit by a pitch, the third batter struck out and the fourth batter hit a blop  into center that drove in the winning run.

The final score was 4-3 Twins.

Tomorrow's game against the White Sox is at home. The weather for the 7:00pm start does not look promising. Temps around 40° and a steady light rain. I suspect tomorrow will be a bust and there will be another double header in their future.

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The Bruins are taking on the Islanders at 7:00 this evening. I should be able to make it through all three periods as long as the Bruins are playing well.

They made some moves at the trade deadline and picked up a couple of decent players. Hall came over from the Sabres and in my opinion, he brings a kickass attitude and set of legs that move him around the ice pretty damned well. He played in Tuesdays game against the Sabres and I was impressed.

I'm hoping tonight is a pretty good game to watch

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Time to fire up the electric grill and enjoy some steaks for dinner. After that, it'll be hockey time.

You can enjoy these links if you want:

• Psycho Nancy has finally done something I agree with.



• Oh Canada.



• This sounds like a terrible idea on every level.



• Key line in this story: "Polls show they don't."



• I hate to say it but this is going to turn out to be that 11 year old boy who disappeared in March.



• Only in Florida.

I was wrong

When I said that the games today may cause trouble for fans because of the 7:00pm curfew, I forgot that Minneapolis is one hour behind us and what is 7:00 for us is actually 6:00 for them. Looks like todays games won't cause any trouble for the Twins fans.

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Speaking of the Red Sox, they won the first game of the double-header. They beat the Twins 3-2.

Evoldi pitched a decent game, going 5 of the 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 earned runs. I'm thinking he is in pretty good form and I really hope he stays that way through the entire 162 game season. Historically, he ends up on the DL mid-season...

As for the hitters, they should have had a lot more than three runs because they got eleven hits. The problem is that they left a lot of men in scoring position at the third out. And that is an ongoing problem with the Red Sox. They always seem to leave runners in scoring position. If they can figure out how to move the guy from second or third to home plate before the third out, they'll win a lot more games.

The second game isn't going as well. It's currently the 5th inning and the Red Sox are down 1-0. That needs to change.

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I get the best spam...

I received this wonderful email message today and it made me smile so I thought I'd share it with you:

Looks like I'll finally be able to retire!

⧫
The Bruins won last night in a shoot-out so they picked up two points. They are still kind of shaky, being six points behind the Penguins and only four points ahead of the Flyers.

They need more wins in regulation because they get three points for each win in regulation. In case you didn't notice, three points is more than one or two points.

⧫
While I watch game two of this first double-header of the season, you can click on these:

• How is this guy still alive? How did he not catch a face-full of guardrail?



• This guy was a slimeball of the highest magnitude.. He didn't just steal from rich people and few celebrities, he cleaned out widows, the elderly, orphans, etc...



• Here's a cute story from the land of "No Shit Sherlock."



• Australia: What doesn't kill ya, twerks in yer face.



• Key phrase in this story: "...people aren’t willing to come back to that work environment."



• Australia: What doesn't kill ya, hides in your lettuce and tries to kill ya.

Interesting game today

Monday's postponement is scheduled to be played on Wednesday, immediately after the 2:10 game. This means that both games will now be seven inning long.

Given that Minneapolis is under a 7:00pm curfew, I'm not sure what the fans are going to do since the second game will probably start around 5:00 / 5:30 and will probably go past 7:00pm

As for today's game, it was snowing:

If you've never hit a ball with a stick in the cold, whether it was baseball, softball or golf, I can tell you that you don't know what your missing. Unless you hit the ball with the "sweet spot" of the bat or the club, you will experience a pain in your hands that is akin to smashing yourself in the palm with a hammer.

It stings.

A lot.

Both teams battled through the weather but in the end, the Red Sox beat the Twins 4-2, giving them a seven game winning streak and solidifying their first place position in the ALEast.

As I mentioned, tomorrow will be two 7-inning games and the weather doesn't look as bad as today with highs in the upper 40s and partly cloudy. Not ideal baseball playing weather but better than what they dealt with today.

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The Bruins fell apart the other day, getting beat by the Capitals 8-1. They looked awful.

I'm hoping that they are over their malaise and play a lot better tonight when they take on the Sabres at 7:00 this evening.

I'm not sure how much of that game I'll watch since the Small Dog woke me at 2:30 this morning to go out and I didn't really get around to falling back to sleep. If the Bruins are playing well, I'll tough it out but if things look bad, I'll probably just fall asleep on my couch, wake up in the middle of some rant by Dale Arnold about how the Bruins should play better and go to bed

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We're trying to figure out what to have for dinner and none of us has a clue. Maybe hot dogs. Maybe fish filets. Maybe leftovers.

While we agonize over what quick and easy meal to make, you can ponder these:

• At some point in the future, I suspect Iran is going to get some uranium in a format that it didn't plan on...



• Are they saying there are people that sell or distribute hornets? Who the hell is buying hornets? Send them to my house in late July or August and I'll sell them all the hornets they want.



• Only in Florida.



• Key phrase in this story: "...the company installed an 'enhancement' to the software..."



• This is exactly the kind of thing that I would expect to happen in Methuen.



• Oh Canada.

No baseball today

Because the city of Minneapolis is in the midst of civil unrest, the Twins decided to postpone today's game. They said they did it to honor the memory of some guy killed last night but I call bullshit. If they really did it to honor the memory of some guy, they wouldn't have waited until 10 minutes before the game starts to suddenly postpone it, they would have announced the postponement before the fans showed up.

My guess is that 15 or 20 minutes before game start, something happened or something was said that frightened someone and they decided to postpone the game. Why they decided to lie about the reason is a mystery to me.

Since there is no hockey this evening, my sports fix will have to be fulfilled by the curling that was DVR'd last night

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The other day, my car developed a little problem. When I turned on my right turn signal, the high beams also turned on. This was not a good thing for my fellow drivers who were driving towards me in the opposite lane.

Yesterday afternoon, I took the turn signal / high beam control arm out of the steering column and took it apart. All seemed fine but to be honest with you, if there was any wear on the plastic moving parts, I probably wouldn't notice it unless it was pretty severe.

I cleaned the contacts, checked the connections, put it back together and put it back into the steering column.

This morning, all was well until I hit a bump and the high beams turned on. I managed to turn them off but the minute I used the turn signal, the high beams turned on. Put those two things together and my best guess is something inside is worn and become loose. Everytime that particular worn part is jostled, it completes the circuit and the high beams come on.

The solution? Buy a new turn signal control arm.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can buy anything on Amazon.

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I'm going to figure out what to have for dinner and then watch some curling.

While I do that, you can visit these:

• Apparently the best way to achieve "social justice" is to steal sneakers, video games and cell phones.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminals of the Month.



• Horny Gators would be a fantastic name for a 1970s porno movie.



• No big deal, it's Bud light.



• Here comes the drought. My poor lawn is gonna die again...



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "1:40 p.m. An investigator looking into whether or not two horses were being underfed reported the horses 'both are fat'."

Belated Birthdays are fun

My wife celebrates her birthday in March but things were pretty hectic with us around then so she decided to delay it until things slowed a bit. Turns out last night was the night.

We packed ourselves (my wife, my daughter and myself) up & went out for some fancy drinks and a very nice dinner at a local establishment. We didn't get home until after 8:00 so that is why you got a brief posting last night.

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When I got home last night and settled onto my couch, I turned on my tv to see the Red Sox / Orioles were tied 2-2 in the fifth inning. The Red Sox went up 3-2 in the sixth but the Orioles went up 4-3 in the eighth. It looked bleak for a bit until the Red Sox tied it 4-4 in the ninth and then won it 6-4 in the tenth.

Here's the problem with everything I just typed: I didn't actually see anything beyond the seventh inning. I fell asleep on my couch in the middle of the eighth inning and woke up in the middle of Cora's post-game interview.

Oh well, at least they won.

Which is something they also did today as well...

The Red Sox officially made up for being swept by the Orioles by sweeping the Orioles this afternoon.

Todays final score was 14-9 with Pivetta going 6 innings and earning the win. This gives the Red Sox a six-game winning streak going into their four-game series against the Twins.

And I know that they are only 9 games into this 162-game season and things will change numerous times over the next several months but I feel the need to post this:

The Red Sox hold a two-game lead over every team in their division. Despite losing their first three games, that's not a bad start to the season.

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Time for me to feed the four-legged creatures.

While I do that, you should look into these links:

• If I were in charge, it would be legal to shoot these assholes. That is why I will never be in charge.



• I have two vehicles that need to be inspected in May. I'm going to assume that by the time they get this cleared up, the backlog will be so bad that I'll have to sit in line for at least two hours for each vehicle.



• Attention media: You appear to be confused about what a racist is so let me clear it up for you. This guy is a racist. Stop calling him "colorful" or "brutally honest".



• I'm starting to get a little excited about this.



• Attention old people: It's National 8-Track Tape Day. CA-LUNK!



• Israel and the United States both have ironclad alibis: They were nowhere near Natanz. They were doing laundry and playing Uno..

Busy evening so this will be short

The Bruins lost to the Flyers this afternoon 3-2. They are still in fourth place in the east.

The Yankees lost to the Rays this afternoon and have fallen to fourth place behind the Red Sox, the Orioles and the Rays.

The Red Sox are playing the Orioles at 7:00. If they win, they will take sole possession of first place in the east.

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Here are some links:

• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of our society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen.



• We live in interesting times.



• This is a sure sign that some people have too much money.



• Isn't this the way godzilla got created?

I made it through all 3 periods

I managed to stay awake long enough to watch the Bruins beat the Capitals 4-2 last night an I'm glad I did.

It was a hell of a hockey game with a lot of back & forth between the two teams.

They are in Philadelphia tomorrow to take on the Flyers at 2:00pm.

The Red Sox are off until 7:00 tomorrow so I guess tomorrow will be a sporting day for me.

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I have 20 days left till the end of April in which to schedule and complete my BFR (biannual flight review). I'm not entirely sure what happens to my license if I miss the BFR but I don't want to find out so I guess I better get that done.

For the record, this review is not a standardized test, it is simply a one hour flight with a flight instructor to work on things you feel you need to work on, demonstrate to the instructor that you haven't completely forgotten how to fly and give the instructor an opportunity to evaluate your basic skills.

I'll schedule something with my instructor next week. We'll go flying around the valley working on landings, steep turns, slow flight and maybe some stalls.

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I'm thinking of getting a Amazon FireTV stick for my non-smart (aka "dumb") tv so I can stream my video services on it. If you have an opinion about that particular product and you know my email address, feel free to let me know.

Here are today's links:

• If you hold an election and don't tell anyone about it, it's a pretty good bet that no one will show up to vote.



• Words you should never hear from a 28 year old man: "My mom is gonna beat you up!"



• Key phrase in this story: "He stated he could ‘take me’."



• Key phrase in this story: "I don’t care what kind it is, just get me a beer!"



• Australia: What doesn't try to kill ya, clogs your drain.



• Key phrase in this story: "It was covered with a blanket and was wearing a seatbelt."

The US lost to Canada.

My three hour recording of Curling was actually 2 hours of Curling and 1 hour of some car auction.

Canada pretty much owned the US, taking almost every end and beating them 10-1.

I enjoyed watching it and my wife enjoyed walking through the family room, shaking her head and mumbling, "curling..."

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The Red Sox / Orioles game kicked off at 3:00 this afternoon and as it stands right now, the Red Sox are are up 7-3 in the 8th inning.

The Red Sox really need to beat the Orioles if only to recover from that 3-game sweep last week. A win today gives them some strong confidence going into the rest of the series.

If they can sweep the Orioles, that will be awesome.

Update @ 7:00pm:

The Red Sox won.

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I'm tired and I'm not sure I'll make it through any more than 2 periods of tonight's Bruins game.

While I do that, you can do these:

• Speaking of the Red Sox, the key phrase in this story: "I'm feeling sexy at the plate."



• It's too bad WKRP is off the air because this story is right up Les Nessman's alley.



• Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Forrest Gump.



• Key phrase in this story: "Just when I think I have seen it all, someone steps up and surprises me with a new level of disturbing actions."



• Key line in this video: "I done jack-knifed!"



• The Critter's Scrotum would be a fantastic name for a 1970's horror movie.



• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.

Good day to be a Boston sports fan

Last night, the Bruins beat the Flyers 4-2, increasing their point lead over the Flyers and the Islanders to five points.

Also last night, the Red Sox beat the Rays 6-5 in a twelve inning game that I managed to watch right up until the start of the tenth inning. Then I said the hell with it and went to bed. When I woke up this morning, I discovered that the Martinez managed to hit a double in the bottom of the twelfth that gave the Red Sox the win.

This afternoon, the Red Sox finished up their three-game series against the Rays by sweeping them. The game was on at 1:00 on Youtube (I'll get to that shit in a minute...) and Evoldi pitched a hell of a game. He gave the Red Sox seven strong innings, allowing only three hits and one earned run. After Evoldi, Taylor came in for the eighth and ninth innings, giving up two hits and one earned run.

The game ended with the Red Sox winning 9-2.

Tomorrow, the Red Sox head to Baltimore to take on the Orioles and hopefully they get revenge for the three-game sweep the orioles put on them last week. As for the Bruins, they take on the division-leading Capitals tomorrow and they need the win. They need to stay in fourth place if they want to make the playoffs.

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Let's talk about the decision to put the Red Sox game on Youtube.

I realize that Google, who owns Youtube, probably paid a lot of money to MLB, the Red Sox and the Rays carry that game but I don't care. It sucked.

Yes, we have a smart television so I was able to stream it on a large screen tv but at least three times during the broadcast, it buffered for 10 or 15 seconds and each time, it was when something good was happening.

Also, the Youtube commentators spent a lot of time on-screen, talking about some Youtube trophy, showing pictures of the trophy, talking about the Red Sox "city connection" jerseys (see yesterday's post about those pieces of crap) or just talking about themselves.

Attention Google/Youtube: I did not put on the ball game so I could watch John Smoltz (who I like), I put on the game so I could watch the game. I don't care about some piss-ant Youtube trophy, I care about Hernandez making nice catch & throw to first to put a guy out.

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Last May, almost one year ago, I set up a new DVR recording.

Due to the 'rona, it has never been activated.

Until this past Monday:

For the first time in almost a year, I'm gonna watch curling!!!

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While I spend my evening watching three hours of curling, you can click on these:

• If Biden keeps trying to implement almost $4 trillion dollars in spending, he's going to be a one-term president and this guy is gonna get elected in 2024.



• That's because we have been vaccinating people who don't go anywhere or do anything instead of the active people in our society. We should have started with the young and worked our way up to the 90 year old crowd.



• Oh great, I'm probably gonna end up with dementia.



• Thailand: It's not like where you and I live.



• I'm thinking that Dinesh Patel might be a little bit odd.



• I thought their turkey leg was weird...

More sports

Last night, the Red Sox finally won a game when they beat the Rays but the Bruins lost to the Flyers.

Tonight is the same thing: The Red Sox throw the first pitch to the the Rays at 7:00 and the Bruins face off against the Flyers at 7:00. That means I'll be flipping back and forth between NESN and NESN+.

Hopefully they both win tonight.

And for the record, I hate this:

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I'm trying very, very hard to avoid the three or four big stories that are in the news because, well, I have nothing good to say about any of them and my Uncle Marino always told me, "If you don't have anything good to say about someone, say it behind their back."

Just kidding. He never said that. He always told me to say it to their face as eloquently as possible.

I will say that if I were in charge, I would issue an order to the border patrol that if they see a human smuggler tossing little kids over the fence, you should shoot the smuggler dead. If we start killing all the child smugglers, we probably won't stop the problem but I bet we slow it down a lot.

And that is why I will never be in charge...

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Time for me to get into my sweats, hit the couch and watch sportings.

While I do that, you can do these:

• I bet water will be more expensive than beer in Vegas.



• This isn't good.



• Aggressive Lynx Scurrying About would be a great name for a 1950's childrens book.



• Face tattoos are always a sign of poor life decisions.



• Only in Florida.



• Another reason I don't like to fly commercial.

My yard is clean

At some point in the very near future, I expect a phone call from the guy who fertilizes my lawn asking, "Are you ready for your first application?"

Normally, when that happens, my response is, "No. My lawn is covered with leaves." and they say, "Well, call us back when you are."

If my timing is correct, this year they will call me in the next few days and for the first time in years, I will say, "Yes, I'm ready. Come fertilize."

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The Red Sox are playing the Rays at 7:00 tonight.

The Bruins are playing the Flyers at 7:00 tonight.

I'll be flipping back and forth between the two.

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Time to make some dinner, get into my sweats and watch some sports.

You can click on these if you want:

• Baby steps...



• Only in Florida.



• Also only in Florida.



• Yes, this is also only in Florida.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "2 p.m. Bob was tired and took a nap."

Nice Easter day.

Easter consisted of our little household bubble, meaning it was my wife, my daughter and myself. I'm kind of hoping this is the last holiday we need to keep our distance because it would be nice to see the boys and finally meet our grandson.

Speaking of which, he's doing very well. Thanks for asking.

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The Orioles managed to beat the crap out of the Red Sox this afternoon and I'm ready to question the decisions made to keep Garrett Richard's on the roster as a starting pitcher.

I don't remember each inning he pitched during spring training but I do know that I was not impressed. Now that I see him in the regular season, I can say that he is not pitching very well and "not pitching very well" is what killed the Red Sox last season.

After 2 innings, with the bases loaded and the score 3-0, they took Richards out, put Josh Taylor in and....

....he proceeded to walk the first batter he saw with only four pitches to bring in the fourth Oriole run.

Taylor threw four fastballs that were all 6 to 12 inches above the strike zone. He could do nothing with his fastball so he started throwing breaking balls.

Now I'm no major league baseball hitter but I do know that if you are at the plate and you know the pitcher can only throw breaking balls, you know when & where to swing the bat. Apparently the Orioles also know that trick because by the time the third inning ended, the score was 10-0.

Did I mention it was only the third inning?

As for the hitters, they weren't doing much better. The final score of the game was 11-3.

They are now 0-3 and I don't think that Cora has a clue as to how to right the ship.

This could turn out to be a long season for us Red Sox fans.

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I'm pleased to say that my cobol skills are back. I've managed to create datasets, write datasets, read datasets and manipulate data.

Since the machine comes with a 'C' compiler, maybe I'll start writing some 'C' code to see how that goes.

I realize it sounds odd but I'm having fun playing with this machine.

In other Raspberry PI news, when I tire of mainframe stuff, I've decided I'll install a new OS and move the machine up to my family room, plug the HDMI interface into my television and turn my tv into a streaming media machine.

I figure streaming Netflix, Disney+ and Youtube on a 55 inch high def television is better than watching it on my laptop.

Maybe I'll get that Discovery+ thing...

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Dinner is done, Jordan Spieth has won the Valero Texas Open and I'm going to watch some news.

You can click on these if you want:

• In my opinion, the first indication should be, "If you don't remember how many you've had, you should call a cab."



• How come no one shot these assholes?



• I guess she really wanted that quarter pounder with cheese.



• Only in Florida.



• I used to want to go to Sweden. Suddenly, I don't want to go to Sweden anymore.



• She is the inspiration for the t-shirt, "Bomb Squad: If you see me running, try to keep up!"

It's one of those dates.

I just thought I'd point out that today is 4/3/21 in case no one else has mentioned it to you.

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The Red Sox are now 0-2. They lost to the Orioles 4-2 this afternoon and I have no idea why.

I'm beginning to think it's the 1980's all over again.

Then again, it's only game 2 of the season. There are 160 games left for them to get their shit together and start playing like I think they can play.

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As for the other sport I follow at this time of the year, the Bruins managed to beat the Penguins this afternoon 7-5.

It appeared they were going to lose the game because the Penguins scored first and held the Bruins to zero goals during the first period.

Then, between the first and second period, some magic or some such shit happened and the Bruins came out skating like maniacs. They scored 5 goals in the second period and two more in the third.

They are still in fourth place in the east but the Flyers are falling further behind them. The problem is the Bruins have a nasty April schedule because they had so many games postponed. They are playing four games a week until the end of the season and that is going to tire them out.

Four games a week also means a lot of swapping back and forth between the Red Sox and the Bruins.

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Not much else to prattle on about today.

Enjoy these links:

• Sparking Nuclear Waste Drum would be a fantastic name for a 1970's disco band.



• I've owned dogs my entire life and I can tell you with complete honesty: Dogs don't care what you call them. All they care about is head scritches, belly rubs and getting a bite of whatever it is you are currently eating.



• I did not know that you can treat ingrown toenails with salt.



• Only in Florida.

Well that kinda sucked

The Red Sox got shut out today when the Orioles beat them 3-0.

I thought Evoldi did a pretty good job through 5 & ½ innings but the kid pitching for the Orioles, Means, was better.

Tomorrow is another game so we'll see what happens then.

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The Bruins lost 4-1 last night and they kind of deserved it.

They had no energy & no fight and the Penguins flat out beat them to the puck every time.

They play again on Sunday at the same time the Red Sox play so I'll have to do the flip-back-and-forth thing.

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Dinner is done and I'm going to watch some bad television. Enjoy these linkis:

• So much for that whole, "We'll only tax the rich!" bullshit they've been slinging.



• Australia: What doesn't try to kill ya, tries to slap you around.



• That's not what's supposed to come from Uranus...



• Key phrase in this story: "The most expensive event is adding a teen driver to your policy."



• Only in Florida.



• The Scots are quickly overtaking the Japanese as the weirdest people on the planet.

I was right

Turns out I was right last Tuesday when I said, "Then again, I checked the weather for Thursday and it's looking like rain almost all day. That means the game will probably get postponed."

The Red Sox and the Orioles will open their season tomorrow (Friday) at 2:10.

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The Bruins will take on the Penguins at 7:00 this evening and if they win, they will remain in fourth place. If they lose, they will still remain in fourth place.

Either way, I'll watch the game while polishing up my cobol programming skills because you never know when someone might want an old cobol programmer.

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I don't think Trump was a good president. I never cared for his treatment of people. He really pissed me off when he called John McCain a loser for spending years as a POW in a North Vietnamese torture center.

Having said that, I also want to make note of the fact that we never saw video like this when Trump was president simply because he made an effort to stem the tide.

What kind of scumbag drops a three year old child & a five year old child into the desert and runs away from them? More importantly, what kind of alleged parent hands their child off to a scumbag like that?

What the hell is wrong with those people...

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Here are some links for you to visit:

• Speaking of presidents I don't care for: We are all screwed.



• Key phrase in this story: "The man was reportedly sitting on the toilet like any other normal day when he suddenly felt something bump his rear end from inside the bowl."



• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.



• This is kinda cool.



• There's an old joke: When life hands you lemons, make a vodka tonic...